(Editor’s Note: This is the seventh stop on the Fall Ball Series Powered by Max Effort Baseball in which we visit the local colleges and take a look at their upcoming season. Previously, we featured Adelphi, Old Westbury, Farmingdale, St. Joseph’s, Molloy, and Hofstra. Special thanks to Max Effort Baseball for sponsoring this year’s series.)
“𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐍𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟗 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐔𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄‼️…”@ccsubaseball outlasts LIU in 12 innings to add a ninth 🏆 to its case and punch its NCAA 🎟️!#NECbaseball x @CCSUBlueDevils pic.twitter.com/ziRSBjXA4Z
— NEC Baseball (@necbaseball) May 25, 2025
On March 9, Central Connecticut State defeated LIU on the road to take two of three from the reigning champs in the opening weekend of Northeast Conference action. It turned out that over the next two months, LIU would not lose another series to a conference opponent. They would ultimately finish with a 24-6 record and clinched the regular season title with a victory over Stonehill.
In the conference tournament, LIU would go on to get a rematch with CCSU in the finals needing to win twice in order to defend their crown. They beat them, 8-7, to force a winner-take-all game. In a classic game that went 12 innings, they would lose 6-5 to have their season end with an overall record of 35-23.
Despite the loss, head coach Dan Pirillo was very satisfied with the fight that his team showed.
“It was a great playoff run from start to finish,” said the longtime skipper of the Sharks who played his college ball at LIU Brooklyn. “If you would’ve told me in the beginning of the year that we would only lose 1 series I wouldn’t have believed it. We had to win our last two games against Stonehill to win the regular season title. Then we had to face them again in the opening round of the playoffs. It was a resilient group. They had to put it together on the fly. We played about as good as we could’ve played. We played a really high level of baseball. CCSU played as high level as we did. That’s what we saw in the World Series with Toronto. That’s just how it goes sometimes. I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a position where you lose but you’re happy with the result but we had a lot of guys that did spectacular things.”
From last year’s group, they graduated a few big time contributors. From the position players, Jack Power was a middle of the order bat that set the program’s single-season school record with 16 homers. He was a part of 2 championship teams in 2022 and 2024.
From the rotation, they graduated Garrett Yawn who was the NEC Pitcher of the Year. He showed an unprecedented level of toughness in the tournament. He started and pitched a complete game with 11 Ks in the opening round win against Stonehill. While most aces might offer to take the ball later in a conference tournament, Yawn took it a step further firing 8 more inning in Sunday’s victory against CCSU to force the winner-take-all game.
When asked whether he was confident in giving Yawn the start on 1-day rest, Pirillo said the following:
“I don’t know if I had confidence but when you have that good of an arm…It’s not like he is a breaking ball-heavy pitcher, he’s a fastball-change up guy. He’s sort of a low-effort arm. After he threw Game 1, he came to me and asked for the ball. He said he’ll be ready for Sunday. Once a game like that starts, it’s pretty much inning-to-inning. He was probably thinking he might not pitch again. He had an opportunity to pitch in the MLB Draft League but turned it down.”
Give it up for Garrett Yawn👏👏👏
The NEC Pitcher of the Year threw 255 pitches and 172 strikes in the last 48 hours.
Game 1 vs. Stonehill: 9.0 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 2 BBs, 11 Ks
Game 6 vs. CCSU: 8.0 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 3 BBs, 4 Ks#NECBaseball⚾️ x #NECchamps🏆 pic.twitter.com/2TUK3BPZFH— NEC Baseball (@necbaseball) May 25, 2025
Yawn provided the Sharks with the type of tenacity that you cannot teach. For his career, the 6’4 California native was a two-time first team All-NEC selection and was named to the All-Tournament team as a sophomore. He won 23 games over his 4-year career and led the NEC in several categories as a senior including wins (10), strikeouts (113), innings pitched (105.1), games started (16) and shutouts (2). There’s no question his presence will be missed.
They also graduated CF Jacob Pipercic who had a great season for the Sharks. He batted .292 with a strong .938 OPS and went 31-for-34 in stolen bases. The Florida-native will be in the Banana Baseball draft.
SS Benjamin Fierenzi started 41 games for LIU as a senior, batting .276 with a .721 OPS. He scored 29 runs and knocked 11 XBHs. Pirillo noted that he will probably be playing winter ball in his native Australia.
As far as returning players, they have plenty of impact players back from last year’s postseason team.
Anchoring the rotation will be Nicholas Finarelli and Justin DeCastro. They were both weekend starters and will now be moving up a slot to the Friday and Saturday spots. DeCastro went 8-5 over 93.2 innings while Finarelli went 9-5 over 87 innings.
They return SS Ryan Rivera who had outstanding season – batting .357 with a .908 OPS. He scored 46 runs, knocked 14 doubles, three triples and 3 HRs while driving in a team-high 51 runs. Additionally, he struck out just 15 times and stole 16 bases in 23 attempts.
Coach spoke highly of catcher Joe Durso.
🎤 𝗠𝗜𝗖’𝗗 𝗨𝗣!
Rainouts are no fun. 🌧️⚾️
But this edition of “Mic’d Up” featuring @LIU_Baseball catcher Joe Durso is. #NECbaseball pic.twitter.com/KA1NXik3Ih
— NEC (@NECsports) May 22, 2025
“He’s in much better shape this season and he did a really nice job in the fall,” he said in regards to the Kellenberg grad who transferred from St. John’s. He was an iron man, starting 54 games and batted .280 with a .797 OPS. Durso knocked 5 HRs and drove in 42 runs – third on the team.
Infielder Noah Sorensen returns as well. He’s a three-year starter and drove in 29 runs last year.
They have a few other Long Island players – LHP Torin Kassebaum (17.1 innings, 2.60 ERA), Matt McGurk, Nicholas Benhardt and Nicholas DelVecchio.
In terms of newcomers, they brought in a few transfers – LHP James Lordi (UCF), MIF Elijah Fairchild (Cal State Northridge) and C/1B Jake Kelleher (Lackawanna College).
They will open up the 2026 season against San Diego State on February 13-15. They will look to get back to the top in the NEC. The conference received a new member with the addition of New Haven.
